Bacho Tsiklauri, nine, is the only pupil at the primary school in the remote mountain gorge village of Makarta, Georgia, 62 miles north of the capital Tbilisi.

He is one of only four children in the village, which is home to about 30 people. The older children, including his brother Dato, attend a high school in a nearby village two miles away.

Reuters photographer David Mdzinarishvili travelled along 12 miles of dirt track through the Gudamakari gorge, which separates Makarta from the rest of Georgia, to meet Bacho.

The journey through the gorge took as long as it did to cover on the main road.

Bacho knows it is time for lessons when he sees 47-year-old Ms Tsiklauri, who teaches Georgian and mathematics, walking past his house at about 10am each day.

‘Lia began the lesson by taking the register, but then she laughed and with this the tension disappeared.

‘They soon forgot about my presence, and the class went as usual: checking homework, going over previous lessons, being called to the board, and learning new material.

At break time, Bacho kicked a half-flat football around the courtyard by himself and did a few laps, Mr Mdzinarishvili said. Then the boy’s other teacher, 40-year-old Inga Chokheli, arrived for his English lesson.

Both the teachers were full of praise for their only student. They just had one disappointment: when he goes to high school, the primary school in Makarta will close.